I do think there are two types of functionality being discussed in this thread.

1> Image File Management
      Managing the image files themselves to ensure that their lifecyle is managed along with other content.
      And that this is controllable in a standard way by module developers and is transparent to users.
      The goal here is to avoid orphaned content

2> Image management
     Automated Sizing and other controls for images.
     These options would ensure that Image sizes and quality are consistent, and could help to keep some control of
     disk space utilization.
     The goal here would be the same.  
     To allow module developers to implement these features in a standard way that would be Transparent to users.
     While these features would be welcome within the editor, I think these feature would also be commonly utilized
     directly by modules for Galleries, Photo ID's etc.